Carl Trueman, PhD, is an evangelical Protestant theologian and church historian. I have read several of his essays, all of which reveal a sharp and discerning mind. His book Classical Theology For The Modern Mind is an important contribution for the health of the contemporary church. He writes,

“Evangelical theology’s tendency in some of its expressions toward a bare biblicism and away from serious engagement with the intellectual history of the church has left it vulnerable to unwittingly holding positions that are basically incompatible with both the Nicene faith and its later appropriation and reiteration by the Reformers and their immediate successor.”

He echoes the thesis in my upcoming book that the contemporary church abdicated from the ancient church’s position on physical death for the Christian. Indeed, the historic church espoused an understanding of physical death for the believer that the contemporary church would find strange. When we jettison historical theology and naively believe that our isolated understanding is supreme, we are in danger of ultimately finding ourself at odds with the historic church. This is precisely what happened with the church in the mid-20th century when it cut loose from the historic church’s position on physical death and emerged with a view of physical death that contradicts the church’s historical theology.